Gameshows, sports and eSports, reality shows, live broadcasts, and live streaming media are popular sources of entertainment for audiences. These sources of entertainment rely on a segment of video and/or audio content that is generated by capturing aspects of a physical and/or virtual environment. Parts of the segment or edited forms of the segment are transmitted from a content provider to a client machine, such as a television, desktop computer, laptop, smart phone, tablet, or radio. Members of an audience consume the transmitted parts of the segment by watching and/or listening to the parts on the client machine.
For live broadcasts or streams, an event that occurs in a physical or virtual environment is typically delayed at least a few seconds between the actual occurrence in the environment and the time that content depicting the occurrence is presented by the client machine. Common delays between event occurrence and event presentation are due to generation time, processing time, and transmission time. Some content providers also add intentional delays to live broadcasts or streams. Intentional delays may be added arbitrarily or, for example, to allow ample time for filtering profanity, violence, and adult content, or for other forms of editing. In light of intentional and unintentional delays, a “live” segment of content, as the term is used herein, refers to any contiguous segment of content for which at least part of the segment is being generated concurrently as the same or other part(s) of the segment are being played to an audience.
Reality shows such as American Idol™, The Voice™, Dancing with the Stars™, and America's Got Talent™ have popular live television segments that are well-known to American audiences. These shows occasionally prompt the audience to take action. For example, in a first segment, a show may present alternative participants or competitors, such as singers, dancers, or other performers, on which the audience can vote after the segment. The show may then air a later segment, such as a segment on the next day or next week. In the later segment, the show may announce, based on the votes that were cast between the first segment and the later segment, which participants or competitors were eliminated and which participants or competitors have advanced to the next round. These shows receive a large number of votes from the audience even though audience members are forced to wait until a later segment to see the results of their votes.
Audiences may also watch eSports, which are publicized or shared competitions between video game participants. Starcraft™ competitions are perhaps the most popular and well-developed eSports of the last decade. In Starcraft II™, observers may join a game instance to watch and listen to a competition between two game participants, as the game instance occurs. Although the observers themselves do not participate in the gameplay, the observers may chat with each other about the events of the game. As a result, the game instance may be more entertaining for the observers.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.